I've got a plan of attack, so I'm not too concerned about that, but I thought I'd share what went on today. Over the last few weeks, kids have been removing socks and other articles of clothing, and just leaving them where they drop. There has been errant clothing in every room of the house. It was driving me crazy, so today I proposed The Laundry Game. Each kid got his own laundry basket, and I set a timer for 3 minutes. The object was to fill the laundry basket with as many articles of dirty clothing as possible, and the kid with the most pieces would win a sheet of stickers.
Aidan beat Eamonn 31 to 24. Can you believe we had fifty-five pieces of dirty clothes laying around?? Most of them were socks, but still! Anyway, Aidan got the stickers, and Eamonn got the consolation prize of helping me put the laundry they collected into the washing machine (a job he enjoys anyway).
Now I need to figure out how to translate this game so it will work for toys...
Bri, at 9, does her own laundry. I was tired of her "touching" an item of clothing and then throwing it into the laundry. It seemed like I was doing 3X as much laundry for her as anyone else! So the girlie does her own laundry now and life is sooooooo much nicer.
Connor has to keep his clothes picked up, drag his laundry basket downstairs, and sort into two piles (light and dark). After that I take over for washing, drying, and putting up. But I expect by the time he is 9, he will be doing all of it on his own.
So just think, in a couple more years the boys can be helping a whole lot with laundry and you just have to concentrate on the by then toddler addition to your family!
I can't imagine Aidan being able to reach into the bottom of our top-load one. I have trouble sometimes, LOL! Maybe I'll just buy the kid a stool, because the idea of giving him some responsibility in that area is quite appealing...
Too cheap to buy new ones as long as the old ones work (in fact, these weren't even new when we got them). And if I'm around, I'll help Bri pull things out of the washer but SHE has to take responsibility to come ask me to help. But Bri is 9, almost 10. Connor just has to drag his laundry basket to the laundry room and sort into two piles. I do the rest--including putting up.
It does help having them take responsibility--Connor last week came to dinner only to find he didn't have a place set for him. Rule is you have to feed the pets before you eat and his responsibility is the cat. He didn't, so no place setting for him. Of course, once he figured out why and took care of it, he was able to join us at dinner. Con's been really good at it this week without reminders(which rather defeats the whole purpose of reducing the load on the parent)
It's just not one of those things I'd be excited to spend money on. If it functions, it's good enough for me
I need to take a page out of your book, as far as responsibility goes. It's something I haven't really stressed with my kids, and Aidan is definitely old enough to have some jobs around the house. Even Eamonn can handle some simple chores. I just haven't really thought enough about it before.
The laundry chute was the best thing we ever put in this house! mroe
March 12 2007, 12:12 PM
Katie is scatterbrained and forgets, but it's our routine to straighten her room before she gets a story, so laudry is included. Adam can reach just enough to push his clothes over the ledge, so I'm trying to get him in the habit now! Daniel has always been very good about it!
But I'm too anal to let them put away their clothes. They just toss them in the drawer, where I like the neat piles. If i'm gonna take the time to fold the darn things, I want them to stay folded!
Hugs,
Andi
Daniel Isaac 3/15/00 , Katherine Grace 10/30/02 & Adam Thomas 2/28/05
It pains me to hand either of my kids a folded pile of laundry, because I know what it will look like next time I see it.
A laundry chute would be great. Next house
When I was at the height of organization with all of this laundry stuff last year, I just had two baskets in my room - one for lights and one for darks. When one got full, I'd do a load. It worked very well, but has fallen apart several times since then. When it is working, though, the kids are very good about putting their clothes in the right baskets when they take them off. When I'm lazy about doing laundry, though, so are they - to an extreme. I find socks everywhere.
